Note 275 — Chapter XVIII · THE LAST DAYS OF NORTHUMBERLAND

Bishop Burnet considered that Northumberland was only insincere in professing Protestantism—“he had always been a Catholic at heart”; John Knox said the same; and Jane Grey herself said, about a week after his death, “but for the answering that he [Northumberland] hoped for life by turning (Catholic), though others be of the same opinion, I utterly am not.” Burnet’s remark is supported by a statement the Duke of Northumberland made on one occasion, it is said, to Sir Anthony Browne, that “he certainly thought best of the old religion; but seeing a new one begun, run dog, run devil, he would go forward.” In other words, his Protestantism was a mere matter of policy.